Bell Sweeps The City

It was a packed house at I-44 Riverside Speedway and another Christopher Bell triumph after battling past teammate and race-long leader Logan Seavey 19 laps into Saturday night’s 30-lapper to finish off a sweep of the Fifth Annual POWRi Midget “Turnpike Challenge”.

“This is home,” Bell said after posting the victory aboard the Keith Kunz Motorsports Toyota-powered JBL No. 21. “It makes my heart happy to see such a great turnout, let’s do this again.”

The victory extended Bell’s mastery of “Turnpike Challenge” action to eight wins in the special event’s ten-race history.

Bell’s Midget wizardry has extended beyond the “Turnpike Challenge” though. Since the beginning of the 2017 season, the current NASCAR Xfinity Series Rookie-of-the-Year contender has stormed to victory lane in 14 of his last 17 Midget starts including a pair of Chili Bowl triumphs. It’s an incredible .875 win clip.

This one found the Norman, OK, native elbows up to add another piece to the trophy room.

“That was hard work,” Bell said in victory lane. “That Logan Seavey is gonna be great one of these days. Heck, he already is.”

With Bell gridding the field outside the third row, Seavey gunned into the lead from the outside front row and set a torrid pace in the KKM No. 67. Bell was on the move in short order though, reaching third within a pair of laps and into second a handful of laps in.

Bell kept pace with Seavey after a lap eleven caution with Seavey countering a Bell slider on the lap 12 restart to retain command. But, as the leaders approached traffic, Bell pounced into the lead on the 19th circuit.

Seavey tried to rally back, attempting a slide for the lead when a caution flew with eight rounds remaining. Following one more interruption two laps later, Bell kept Seavey at bay by three car-lengths over the final half-dozen circuits to score the popular win at his hometown track.

Seavey settled for runner-up honors for the second night in a row with Ryan Robinson giving KKM a podium sweep by taking the show position. Zach Daum raced to a fourth-place finish with Tyler Thomas advancing from “B” Main action to round out the top five from 15th.

A part of the recurring “The Wheatley Chronicles” series of articles on www.sprintcarmania.com, the Open Wheel Power Rankings are determined by cumulative points based on a sliding scale dependent upon car count at Sprint Car and Midget events across all sanctions and non-sanctions throughout North America.

The Wheatley Chronicles brings insight and highlights from all variety of racing series throughout the nation in 2018 and beyond along with the Open Wheel Power Rankings. Please send any comments, questions or advertising inquiries regarding The Wheatley Chronicles at www.sprintcarmania.com to Lonnie Wheatley at lonniewheatley@gmail.com.